Revision summary
Ethical responsibility is fidelity to the Constitution, truthful files, neutrality, and citizen-centric delivery. Illegal oral orders are answered on file, not in secret obedience. Public interest is the open community’s welfare, not office comfort. RTI 2005 makes information the rule; Section 4 and speaking orders serve that rule. Exemptions protect privacy and security; vendetta is not public interest.
Model answer
Introduction
A public servant holds a trust, not a private purse. Ethical responsibility says how that trust must be used; the right to information is one of the chief tools by which public interest can see that use.
Body
(A) Ethical responsibilities of public servant
- The first ethical responsibility is fidelity to the Constitution: equality, dignity, and a speaking reason that a citizen can contest, not loyalty to a person or a faction.
- Integrity and objectivity require truthful noting, refusal of a gift that buys access, and a file that records the fact even when a superior prefers a smoother story.
- Non-partisanship and political neutrality keep the PCS officer from becoming a party worker in khaki; the chair serves every lawful government and every lawful claimant.
- Courtesy, promptness, and the Second ARC’s citizen-centric administration are ethical duties because delay and contempt steal the poor person’s day as surely as a bribe.
- When an oral instruction appears illegal, the ethical act is to ask for it in writing, to dissent on file, and if needed to recuse — not to leak, and not to obey in secret.
- Nolan’s public-life standards and the Conduct Rules name these duties; they do not replace conscience, they make it inspectable.
(B) Public interest and the right to information
- Public interest is the durable welfare of the open community — rights, safety, honest accounts — not the convenience of an office or the curiosity of a rival.
- The Right to Information Act, 2005, treats information as the rule and secrecy as the exception, so that public interest can audit power without waiting for a scandal.
- Section 4 suo motu disclosure, a speaking order, and an e-office trail are ethical RTI: they reduce the citizen’s need to beg for what the state already holds.
- Public interest also limits RTI: Sections 8 and 9 protect privacy, security, and fiduciary data; the test is harm versus a larger public good, as in the Girish Ramchandra Deshpande line on personal information.
- The Central and State Information Commissions, and social audits under MGNREGA, show RTI as a public-interest muscle, not a journalist’s hobby.
- Abuse — fishing, vendetta, or a leak of a vulnerable person’s file — is not public interest; the ethical officer discloses the process and protects the person.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD C[Constitutional fidelity] --> E[Ethical duty] R[RTI as sunlight] --> P[Public interest] E[E] --> P[P] X[Privacy and security] --> P
Conclusion
A public servant’s ethical responsibilities are constitutional fidelity, integrity, neutrality, and a citizen who is not humiliated. Public interest uses the right to information to see that those duties are kept, while privacy and security remain lawful limits, not a blanket of convenience.
Quick related
Students also ask
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What is universal religion? Discuss its major elements.
Next question in the 2019 paper (Q4). View answer →
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Is obeying every superior an ethical responsibility?
Obeying a lawful order is. An illegal oral order must be asked in writing and dissented on file; secret obedience is not ethics.
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Does RTI mean every file must be published?
No. The Act itself carves privacy, security, and fiduciary exceptions. Public interest is the test, not curiosity.
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2025 · Q6 · UPGS4 · 8 marks
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Q2 · UPSC Mains 2019 · UPGS4 · 8 marks · Solution
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Q4 · UPSC Mains 2019 · UPGS4 · 8 marks · Solution
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